Grace Me With Your Presence
by googlygummybear
Summary: Grace travels with Nancy and Bess to New Orleans and goes with Nancy to check on Henry, but only because her cousin Ned asked her too. But now she's starting to think that maybe it wasn't a very bad idea that she come along, because she's starting to see that there's more to Henry Bolet than she thought.


Why was I in New Orleans? Because my cousin Ned Nickerson asked his girlfriend Nancy Drew to check up on his friend from college, and since I had been to New Orleans before he asked to accompany her, and her friend Bess Marvin.

So why am I currently sitting in the dimly lit depressingly quiet library of the late Bruno Bolet's mansion? Because Ned had insisted that I go with Nancy to check on this friend of his. I had reluctantly agreed, even though the idea of sitting in the hotel with Bess Marvin didn't seem any more appealing. But instead of hanging out in our hotel room, where I could have been watching television, I was sitting on the chaise, listing to Henry Bolet as his fingers rapidly hit the keys of his laptop.

I glanced around the room once again, hoping something interesting had suddenly appeared within the last two minutes and twelve seconds. Nancy was out in the garden for some odd reason, even though it was raining cats and dogs, which was the exact reason I wasn't able to get back to the hotel.

I debated whether or not I should go and explore the old mansion, but decided against it. It wasn't a big mansion, but it definitely was creepy, and I didn't feel like taking a tour with the electricity being out.

My eyes traveled over the shelves upon shelves of book until they landed on Henry, well the back of Henry that is. I wondered how I had never noticed him before; I had just finished my freshman year at Emerson College, which was where Ned went and where he had met Henry. Ned had just finished his sophomore year, which meant Henry had too, so why hadn't I noticed him at all?

"Thanks Bess, you're the best." I shook my head in an attempt to come back down to Earth and watched in surprise as Nancy entered the library from the hallway. When had she gotten back from the garden?

"Any news on a cab back to the hotel?" I asked hopefully. Not that sitting in the depressing library wasn't fun, but it really wasn't.

She gave a sad smile, "sorry, no luck. The rains coming down to hard and the cab company doesn't seem to think it's going to lighten up anytime soon."

My shoulder sagged at the news. I pulled out my phone and immediately put it back after remembering that I had no signal. How did Nancy get any type of signal out here? I watched as Nancy strolled over to Henry and began questioning him about something. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

I remembered how Ned told me that Nancy was an amateur detective and when she started asking people questions, constantly, that it meant she had most likely found some type of mystery to solve. If she wanted a mystery, then I had plenty. One was; why is Grace hopelessly bored?

When Nancy seemed satisfied with Henry's answers to her long list of questions she exited through the glass door and went out in the garden once again. Henry didn't waste any time turning back around and leaning back in the office chair.

I sighed and returned to checking out the room. Only one thing caught my attention, and I really didn't want to admit it, but that thing was the one and only Henry Bolet. I just couldn't get over the fact that I had never seen him before. But in all honesty, that wasn't the only thing about him that caught my attention. The tattoo on his arm also raised some questions in my minds, I wasn't sure what it was, I thought it was a snake, but I couldn't be sure.

My eyes slowly drifted down to my wrist where my own tattoo was. It was simple black writing that said _One Love_ with a bright red heart just below it. I frowned upon seeing it, the bad memory resurfacing.

_After two months of dating my boyfriend Colten finally talked me into getting a matching tattoo with him. He wanted something that showed how much we loved each other, and he wanted us to get them somewhere everyone would be able to see them._

_We had decided on me getting one that read _One Love_ with a heart and him getting one that read _One Heart_ with a key just below it. After we got them I had been so excited that he had wanted to get them, especially with how beautiful they had turned out._

_All of that love faded after about three months though. Ashley broke up with me and began dating another girl name Jane, and he had gotten his tattoo removed. I remember after noticing that it was gone I had immediately went to the tattoo parlor to see how much it was to get it removed, and was angered when I found out that it was way out of my price range._

It had been two years since I had gotten the tattoo, and I still hadn't saved up nearly enough money to get it removed. I would have asked my parents but they would just tell me that they told me so. Before I got the tattoo they pestered me, saying that I was going to regret it one day and that when that day came I would have to fix it myself.

"You go to Emerson, right?" I jumped in surprise when I realized that Henry was talking to me. I glanced up and saw him looking at me with his steely blue eyes.

"Yeah."

"How haven't I met you before?" he asked, raising a dark eyebrow.

I shrugged. "I was actually wondering the same thing."

He kept his gaze on me for a few more seconds before he abruptly turned back around and began typing again. I glared at the back of his head. After a few moments of glaring I pushed myself off the chaise and walked over to him. I leaned causally against the large oak desk and watched as his eyes darted from me back to his computer screen.

"Can I help you with something?" He asked, not letting his eyes leave the computer screen.

"I was just wondering about your tattoo." I hadn't really come over for any specific reason, but since he had asked I decided to ask one of the questions I had.

"What do you mean?"

I shrugged. "What's it supposed to be?"

He looked up at me out of the corner of his eye and let out a sigh. He leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers against the arm rest. "It's just some random design, nothing specific."

"Is there a meaning behind it?"

"No, it was just a spur of the moment thing," I nodded in understanding and I caught as his eyes drifted down to my tattoo. "What about yours?"

I held up my wrist and traced my fingers over the ink. "I got it when I was dating my first boyfriend, Colten. He talked me into it, so we got matching ones. His says 'One Heart' and has a key, or should I say had."

"What do you mean?"

I glanced up at him, surprised that he actually cared enough to ask. "He broke up with me a few months after we got them. He got his removed. I wanted to get mine removed too, but it just wasn't in my budget."

It was his turned to nod in understanding. We both turned our heads as Nancy entered the library. She shook the rain from her hair and handed her phone over to me.

"Ned called and wanted you to call him," she explained.

I nodded and pushed myself away from the desk and grabbed the phone. As I made my way to leave the library and caught Henry's gaze for a second before I hit the call button on Nancy's phone. I placed it against my ear and only half listened to the tone as the other half of my thought drifted back to Henry.

We had only been talking about tattoos, but it seemed like there was a deeper meaning behind our entire conversation, at least when I had talked about mine. I mean I had just spilled my entire love life to a guy I hardly knew, and he actually seemed to care. Maybe Henry Bolet was a lot different than I originally thought.

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><p><strong>AN: **So I used to be obsessed with Nancy Drew games, and then I got really busy with school and so I got sidetracked and couldn't play them as often. But since it's Christmas break I thought it would be a great time to go back and play them. And so I went and played The Legend of the Crystal Skull, and fell in love with Henry.

I remember that I always thought he was pretty cute, but I don't remember him being that cute. And after reading a few fanfictions with him, I fell in love even more. I do like the Henry and Nancy pairing, but I prefer to put him with my OC, so I'm going to stick with this.

I hope you all like and it would be awesome if you could drop me a review with any ideas for future chapters (this story may or may not expand past the story of the Crystal Skull) or anything you think I can work on with my writing.

Go check out my website, .com, I've got a blog on there where you can keep up to date on all things Googlygummybear.


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